"White flag" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the earth. The garrison was placed on short rations, and then a condition of starvation ensued. Pemberton held out with a resolution worthy of a better fate. But at length human endurance could go no further. On the fourth of July the white flag was hoisted from the Confederate works, announcing the end. Generals Grant and Pemberton, with three or four attendants each, met between the lines, and the terms of capitulation were quickly named and accepted. Vicksburg was surrendered. General Pemberton and all ...
— Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century - Great Deeds of Men and Nations and the Progress of the World • Various
... white flag, Every eye was fastened on the distant shape. A cry went up from the men in ...
— The Boy Scouts on a Submarine • Captain John Blaine
... general they talked with extraordinary frankness and mutual good feeling; and they grasped hands more than cordially at the end. They might have been two generals, meeting before a battle, under the white flag. ...
— The Case of Richard Meynell • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... to take the surrender, and killed a British officer. A sharp fight with the cold steel followed, and a British officer killed a Turkish officer with a sword thrust in single combat. The body of a German officer with a white flag was afterward found here, but there is no proof that the white flag was used. Finally all the enemy were killed, captured, ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... since he turned vegetarian, can't bear to see a chicken killed for dinner, and is dead set against all bloodshed, advised us to make peaceful terms with the enemy. So we drew lots to see who should go out and parley with them, and it fell to our brother Simon. He took a white flag and went into the enemy's camp; but they held him prisoner and refused to let him go. Then David started up and went after him, with an offer of ransom for his release. But they seized him, too, and so now they have them both. Meanwhile the Wallachs are threatening, ...
— Manasseh - A Romance of Transylvania • Maurus Jokai
... pursuit, and issued out as the season permitted, or prey invited them. Impressed with this idea, we tacked to work up for the road; and our pendant and ensign being hoisted, each of them hung out a small white flag. On approaching, I sent lieutenant Flinders in an armed boat, to learn who they were; and soon afterward we came to an anchor in 12 fathoms, within musket shot; having a spring on the cable, and all ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders
... slide up as the first go down, and upon these the hits are recorded by a forest of black or white discs, waving vigorously in the air. Here and there a red-and-white flag flaps derisively. Mucklewame ...
— The First Hundred Thousand • Ian Hay
... I could neither receive nor give an insult under a white flag," said Carroll, pleasantly. "And they allowed me to make exchanges under the same rule. I picked up this pocket-book on the spot where the accident occurred to Dr. West. It is evidently his. I leave it with ...
— Maruja • Bret Harte
... Fat cattle raised their noses from the thick grass and looked with mild inquiry at him. Sheep ran bleating toward him, as though he were come to salt them. A rabbit leaped from a thorn-bush and whisked his white flag into safety in a hemp-field. Squirrels barked in the big oaks, and a covey of young quail fluttered up from a fence corner and sailed bravely away. 'Possum signs were plentiful, and on the edge of the creek he saw a coon solemnly ...
— The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come • John Fox
... will save ourselves, and go hence." But she said, "Go forth into the forest with thy eleven brothers, and let one sit constantly on the highest tree which can be found, and keep watch, looking towards the tower here in the castle. If I give birth to a little son, I will put up a white flag, and then you may venture to come back, but if I bear a daughter, I will hoist a red flag, and then fly hence as quickly as you are able, and may the good God protect you. And every night I will rise up and pray for you—-in winter that you may ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers
... was in reality a mansion, and needed not the neighboring contrast of the cottages on either side to make it look imposing. When they went in, they entered a large hall, cool even on that burning July day, with a black and white flag floor, and old settees round the walls, and great jars of curious china, which were filled with pot-pourrie. The dusky gloom was pleasant, after the glare of the street outside; and the requisite light and cheerfulness were given by the peep into the garden, framed, as it ...
— The Moorland Cottage • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... Arch'laus Spry following. And there they came to a halt, all three, before a rock that someone had been daubing with whitewash. On the top of the cliff, right above, was planted a stick with a little white flag. ...
— News from the Duchy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... council of the Massachusetts Colony adopted a device for a flag for privateers, and its own armed vessels a white flag with a green pine tree on it (see Fig. 2); but the general Congress made no provision whatever for a naval flag distinct from the Grand Union Flag hoisted in January at Cambridge, as stated. In July, 1776, John Jay complained ...
— The True Story of the American Flag • John H. Fow
... When the white flag had fluttered long enough for him who held it to make sure that it must have been seen by us, the bearer came out from the cover of the wood and walked boldly down the slope. For all the distance the sharp-sighted among us knew him at once for Cornelys Jensen, and it came into my mind that perhaps ...
— Marjorie • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... crouching behind the barriers, behind the houses at the next corner, of Mausers covering us from the latticed balconies overhead. Until at last, when the silence had become alert and menacing, a lonely man dashed into the middle of the street, hurled a white flag in front of us, and then dived headlong under the porch of a house. The next instant, as though at a signal, a hundred citizens, each with a white flag in both hands, ran from cover, waving their banners, and gasping in weak and terror-shaken tones, ...
— Notes of a War Correspondent • Richard Harding Davis
... and at dawn, on April 9, the Southerners saw before them a great force of Federal soldiery abundantly able to hold them in check until Grant's whole army could come up. "A sharp engagement ensued," says General Grant, "but Lee quickly set up a white flag." He then notified Sheridan, in his front, and Meade, in his rear, that he had sent a note to General Grant with a view to surrender, and he asked a suspension of hostilities. These commanders doubted a ruse, and reluctantly consented to hold their troops back for ...
— Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II • John T. Morse
... was understood, however, that Doctor Diaz would remain a non-combatant, for the duty he owed to suffering humanity was higher than the duty his friends tried to persuade him he owed to his country. Hence, the physician and his wife would be under the white flag, it was supposed, and if remarks were made as to their share in the approaching hostilities, it was always with a frank and laughing admission on their part and a jest on that of ...
— Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate • Charles M. Skinner
... itself will not stand long, gentlemen. Tell them that I give no conditions. Let them lay down their arms, and trust in the Bishop of Rome who sent them hither, and may come to save them if he wants them. Gunners, if you see the white flag go down, open your fire instantly. Captain Raleigh, we need your counsel here. Mr. Cary, will you ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley
... word ran round our half-mile of barricades that a board, with big Chinese characters written across it, had been placed by a Chinese soldier bearing the conventional white flag of truce on the parapet of the north bridge, where J——, the first man killed, had fallen, and that the curious board was exciting everyone's astonishment. Getting leave to absent myself, I ran into the British Legation, and from a scaffolding not a hundred yards from the bridge ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale
... the army arrived in view of the Prophet's Town, an Indian was seen coming toward General Harrison with a white flag suspended on a pole. Here the army halted, and a parley was had between General Harrison and an Indian delegation, who assured the General that they desired peace, and solemnly promised to meet him next day in council, to settle the terms of peace and friendship between them ...
— The Land of the Miamis • Elmore Barce
... hostile to his people. Nor was Boabdil el Chico the only Moorish sovereign that sought protection from Ferdinand and Isabella. A splendid galley with latine sails and several banks of oars, displaying the standard of the Crescent, but likewise a white flag in sign of amity, came one day into the harbor. An ambassador landed from it within the Christian lines. He came from the king of Tremezan, and brought presents similar to those of Boabdil, consisting of Arabian coursers, with bits, stirrups, and other furniture ...
— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving
... had to govern were no more like the French of his youth, than the French of his youth were like the French of the Jacquerie. He came back to a people who knew not him nor his house, to a people to whom a Bourbon was no more than a Carlovingian or a Merovingian. He might substitute the white flag for the tricolor; he might put lilies in the place of bees; he might order the initials of the Emperor to be carefully effaced. But he could turn his eyes nowhere without meeting some object which reminded him that he was a stranger in the palace of his fathers. He returned ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 1 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... A white flag had fallen as signal for the start, there was a hollow roar from the starting post, and people were shouting, "They're off!" Then there was a sudden silence, a dead hush—below, above, around, everywhere, and all eyes, all glasses, all ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine
... respite, then, instead of bombs, proclamations fluttering down from a cloudless sky. Unless the white flag of surrender was hoisted from the summit of the battered Capitol, the Invisible Emperor would strike such a blow as should bring America ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, October, 1930 • Various
... that our struggle was to keep clear of freight business until we got rid of our strike. Anything valuable or perishable was especially unwelcome. But the stuff was docked, and loaded, and consigned in our care before we knew it. After that, a refusal to carry it would be like hoisting the white flag; and that is something which never yet flew over the ...
— Golden Stories - A Selection of the Best Fiction by the Foremost Writers • Various
... taken up their position on the ridge known as Smith's Nek, overlooking the plain behind the hill. For a distance of three miles this was covered with waggons and galloping men. The guns were about to open fire upon them when a white flag was hoisted, and, believing that the Boers had surrendered, the gunners abstained from firing. It was, however, but the first of numerous similar acts of treachery, and the Boers were thus enabled ...
— With Buller in Natal - A Born Leader • G. A. Henty
... Baudour. Immediately east of Garenne we had to cross a wide gap, and here the enemy machine-guns, which were cunningly sited and carefully concealed, got busy. As our van-guard closed with him, one Hun, whose gun was mounted at the top window of a house, waved the white flag. The ruse, however, was transparent, and the last shot of the war, as far as we ...
— The Fifth Battalion Highland Light Infantry in the War 1914-1918 • F.L. Morrison
... on shipboard. Let us agree to hoist the white flag the day we sight land, else we shall settle down into a regular War of the Roses and ...
— Mae Madden • Mary Murdoch Mason
... Revolution and the Empire, deep in his councils, though he disliked both of them. Early in his reign occurred what was called the White Terror, in the southern provinces, where the adherents of the white flag repeated on a small scale the ...
— France in the Nineteenth Century • Elizabeth Latimer
... keen, black eye, and piratical air, and would have made a good hero of modern romance. Higher up we came to a guard house, on a little cleared space, surrounded by beech forests. It was a rough stone hut, with a white flag planted on a pole before it, and a miniature water-wheel, running a miniature saw at a most ...
— The Lands of the Saracen - Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain • Bayard Taylor
... had no desire for a glorious death. Up went the white flag, and the men on her deck put up their hands, signifying that they had surrendered. Probably they were already ...
— Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns - Sinking the German U-Boats • Halsey Davidson
... to the landing place in front of the fort. The weather, as on the preceding day, was fine, and the river exhibited the same placidity of surface. Numerous bodies of Indians were collected on the banks, pointing to, and remarking on the singularity of the white flag which hung drooping at the stern of the boat. Presently the prisoners were seen advancing to the bank, accompanied by General Brock, Commodore Barclay, and the principal officers of the garrison. Major Montgomerie ...
— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson
... farmstead marks it—and so into the mere. You know Mother Martha, the mad woman who is nicknamed the Mare? She will be watching at the mouth of it; she always is. Moreover, I caused her to be warned that we might pass her way, and if you hoist the white flag with a red cross—it lies in the locker—or, after nightfall, hang out four lamps upon your starboard side, she will come aboard to pilot you, for she knows this boat well. To her also you can tell your business without ...
— Lysbeth - A Tale Of The Dutch • H. Rider Haggard
... branch," was Stalky's comment. "It's the giddy white flag, by gum! Come to think of it, ...
— Stalky & Co. • Rudyard Kipling
... Saint is represented as unnaturally tall, the figures of her virgins being very small. The mantle and robe of St. Ursula are of rich brocade ornamented with floral designs, while on each side of her is a white flag, on which is a red cross. The face of the saint is so attractive that one forgets the elongation of her figure. There is a delicacy in the execution, combined with a freedom and firmness of handling ...
— Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. • Clara Erskine Clement
... white flag, and in reply the flag on shore was thrice dipped. Oh, what a weight seemed lifted from my heart as I ...
— Journeys Through Bookland V3 • Charles H. Sylvester
... hour after the discharge of the motor-bomb, when the sea had resumed its usual quiet, a boat carrying a white flag left Repeller No. 1, rowed directly over the submerged net, and made for the harbour. When the approach of this flag-of-truce was perceived from the fort nearest the mouth of the harbour, it occasioned much surmise. Had the ...
— The Great War Syndicate • Frank Stockton
... must have been, by the awful fogs which loomed over Ken's Island, gasping for their lives at the water's edge, who shall blame their hesitation or exclaim upon that delay? Over the sea they beheld a white flag waving. Was it the flag which friend or foe had raised? There, from that craggy rock, help was offered them. Could they believe such good fortune, those who seemed to ...
— The House Under the Sea - A Romance • Sir Max Pemberton
... denies positively a story that the Mormons shot two little girls who were dressed in white and sent out for water. He says that when the Arkansans saw a white man in the valley (Lee himself) they ran up a white flag and sent two little boys to talk with him; that he refused to see them, as he was then awaiting orders, and that he kept the Indians from shooting them. "Mormonism Unveiled," ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn
... former deals with the passions, the latter with those shadowy and evanescent sensations which we call feelings. Mr. Winter is not a dramatic poet, but he is, in his own way, a representative poet. His poem "Lethe" represents one set of feelings; "The White Flag" another; and "Love's Queen" another. We like the last best. For, while we believe the others to be equally genuine, they do not impress us as being the best expression of his genius. What we feel most after finishing his volume, what seems to us most characteristic of his ...
— The Aldine, Vol. 5, No. 1., January, 1872 - A Typographic Art Journal • Various
... address was unanimously adopted and signed by all present, and amongst the signatures were those of the principal Protestants of Nimes. But this was not all: the next day it was printed and published, and copies sent to all the communes in the department over which the white flag still floated. And all this happened, as we have said, on April and, eleven days after ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... succeeded; at best, the losses would have been enormous. But at the critical moment, depressed, perhaps, by having witnessed the taking of an incautious French frigate which had tried to run the blockade, what should the French commander do but hang out a white flag! Yes, the place had capitulated! The gates that could not be hammered in with cannon-balls were thrown open, and in crowded the Yankee army, laughing, staring, and thanking the Lord of Hosts for His mercies. Truly, it was like David overcoming ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne
... vaguely conscious that he was right, but conscience stricken nevertheless, hoisted the white flag. ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln
... mercy of the man whom he had attacked. He asked for his life, and Alexander Gordon granted it to him, making him promise by his honor as a gentleman that whenever he had the fortune to approach a conventicle (church meeting) he would retire, if he saw a white flag elevated in a particular manner upon a flagstaff. This seemed but a little condition to weigh against a man's life, and ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... shall there be, indeed, till that last war That shall wage war on War and sweep the earth Of all war-wagers and of all mankind." So spake the voice and ceased. And still we gazed,— A great white building, on its topmost tower A great white flag, proclaimed a World's Tribunal For the righting of the nations' wrongs. And that great army answered its behests And owned allegiance to no other head. Peace reigned triumphant. On the quiet air I heard the merry laughter of the child, And the great ...
— Bees in Amber - A Little Book Of Thoughtful Verse • John Oxenham
... shall get my hand out.' For Rire-pour-tout, as the army knows, somehow or other, generally potted his man every day, and he missed it terribly. Well, what did he do? He rode off one morning and found out the Arab camp, and he waved a white flag for a parley. He didn't dismount, but he just faced the Arabs and spoke to their Sheik. 'Things are slow,' he said to them. 'I have come for a little amusement. Set aside six of your best warriors, and I'll fight them one ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]
... thousand strong, lost seven hundred men by the first day's fire. Only when their guns were silenced, when the town was on fire in various places, and when several yards of wall were thrown down by a mine, did the brave governor hoist the white flag. Other instances of the kind might be cited, when Spanish soldiers fought as well as mortal men could do. But with respect to pitched battles, another tale must be told. At Ocana, Almonacid, and on a dozen ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847 • Various
... shinin' still plainer in another one of the pictures — Lady Aukland a goin' over the Hudson in a little canoe with the waves a dashin' up high round her, to get to the sick bed of her companion. The white flag of truce wuz a wavin' over her head and in her heart wuz a shinin' the clear white light of a woman's deathless devotion. Oh! there wuz likely wimmen amongst the British, I haint a doubt of it, ...
— Samantha at Saratoga • Marietta Holley
... from fifteen to twenty guns, which were continually pointed so as to bear upon us as we pulled up, and which were backed by some thousands, I should think, of Malays and savages, all well armed with spears and knives. This looked like business, but we pulled on, with the white flag still flying. A canoe came off, containing, as at Gonong Tabor, the prime minister. He waved with his hand, ordering us to anchor, and pointing to the guns, which the natives still continued to train after ...
— Borneo and the Indian Archipelago - with drawings of costume and scenery • Frank S. Marryat
... glasses of those on board the ships were directed towards the shore, in hopes of seeing the white flag hoisted, or a boat come out with it flying; but there were no signs of the intentions of the defenders, and the fleet prepared to resume the action in the morning. Fort Marabout, and several of the batteries on the shore, were still unsilenced; and two heavy guns, mounted ...
— With Kitchener in the Soudan - A Story of Atbara and Omdurman • G. A. Henty
... precursor of revolution; and in 1817 he had written to Lord Liverpool that the only hope of saving the country lay in gagging the seditious press. 'Concessions,' he said, 'can only serve to hasten the catastrophe. Woe be to the garrison who hoist a white flag to an enemy that gives no quarter.' Yet Southey had a deep feeling for the misery of the lower classes at this period of widespread distress. In his belief in the power of Government to remedy social evils, he was much nearer the accepted line of later public opinion than Macaulay, ...
— Studies in Literature and History • Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall
... advanced to their work. Some artillery shots passed through their lines, but did not arrest them. The Confederates retired to another ridge immediately fronting the Court-House. Gordon there displayed a white flag, indicating a willingness to negotiate. Custer first saw it. He notified Sheridan, who notified Ord, and the attack was suspended. Sheridan galloped to the front, though fired on by soldiers of a South Carolina brigade,(25) and soon joined Gordon. ...
— Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 • Joseph Warren Keifer
... inform the magistrates that he was going to fire a salute on account of some news which he had received from Ireland, but that the good town need not be alarmed, for that his guns would not be loaded with ball. On another occasion, his drums beat a parley: the white flag was hung out: a conference took place; and he gravely informed the enemy that all his cards had been thumbed to pieces, and begged them to let him have a few more packs. His friends established a telegraph by means of which they conversed with him across ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... 23rd of May anyone looking down the coast could see a man on Gaba Tepe waving a white flag. He was soon joined by another occupied in a like manner. Some officers came into the Ambulance and asked for the loan of some towels; we gave them two, which were pinned together with safety pins. White flags don't form part of the ...
— Five Months at Anzac • Joseph Lievesley Beeston
... high, in the hopes of knocking away some of the Ruby's spars and reducing her to her own condition; but no great damage was done, and the Ruby, now sailing round and round the frigate, reduced her to a complete wreck. At length a man was seen to spring aft with a white flag, which he waved above his head, and then threw down on the deck as a token of surrender. The Ruby standing close to her, Captain Benbow ordered her to heave-to, and then, doing the same, lowered three boats with ...
— Roger Willoughby - A Story of the Times of Benbow • William H. G. Kingston
... When fully six rods from the creek he suddenly stopped, and lifting his delicate muzzle snuffed the air inquiringly. The next instant his tail was lifted, showing the white of the under side, the "white flag," as the hunters term it, and with a bound he ...
— Rodney, the Ranger - With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield • John V. Lane
... and the beat of engines grew plainer. Then round the bend of the river came a remarkably prettily built white-painted gunboat with a blue and white flag bearing a red boss in ...
— This is "Part II" of Soldiers Three, we don't have "Part I" • Rudyard Kipling
... used, one a square white flag with a red square in the center, and the other a square red flag with white square ...
— Camping For Boys • H.W. Gibson
... countrymen they refused to fight. At Pavia they were cut down by the Spaniards and their fame began to wane. They were Germans, hating Austria, and their fidelity to the golden lilies is one of the constant facts of French history, until the Swiss guard and the white flag vanished together, in ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton
... far from the Indian encampment. Major Stillman, commanding some three hundred volunteers, moved from Dixon's Ferry to Sycamore Creek on a scouting expedition. Black Hawk, being apprised of their approach, sent three of his young Indians bearing a white flag to meet them. One of these young Indians was captured and killed. Another party of five Indians, following the flag-of-truce bearers to assist in pacific negotiations, were met by the whites and two of them killed. ...
— General Scott • General Marcus J. Wright
... fell at the edge of the fascines on which the turret stood all cocked on one side, and his spear stuck into them under water, and by a mighty effort he got to the side, but could not get out. Anthony sent a dozen knights with a white flag to take him prisoner. He submitted like a ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade
... Welsh tarries at the Mill-hill, just within shot of the cross-bows; he has a white flag, and ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott
... stopped Georges' narrative all the more surely, because at this moment the coucou reached the guard-house of a brigade of gendarmerie,—the white flag floating, as the orthodox ...
— A Start in Life • Honore de Balzac
... when we arrived, so we escaped the infamy and disgrace of a bloody victory. Before General Clark's arrival, the mob had increased to about four thousand, and determined to attack the town. The Mormons upon the approach of the mob, sent out a white flag, which being fired on by the mob, Jo Smith and Rigdon, and a few other Mormons of less influence, gave themselves up to the mob, with a view of so far appeasing their wrath as to save their women and children from violence. Vain hope! The prisoners being secured, the mob entered the town and ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... trouble. See that high rock over on the far side of the island? Well, you can see that all the way from Sea Crest, and if you see a lantern hanging in that tree to-night, come. If it's day-time I'll put a white flag up, and the wind will wave it, but I don't believe she'll make trouble just now. All I was afraid of was being put away, and now I see why she said that. She just wanted me to run away. But I shan't. I'll stay, and I'll take ...
— The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest - The Wig Wag Rescue • Lillian Garis
... logs were already flying in the air as the stream of cannon balls beat upon them. The garrison made a desperate resistance, but the cramped place was crowded with women—settlers' wives—as well as men, the commander was killed, and at last the white flag was ...
— The Masters of the Peaks - A Story of the Great North Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler
... if we had only the usual means of defense. Under ordinary circumstances, our only game would be to turn tail and run for it, or cut away far to the south—or else break out a white flag and surrender. But—" ...
— The Flying Legion • George Allan England
... prevailed. Within an hour a hundred men with a seven-pr. gun, eager to exact punishment for the insults they had suffered, took the Duck Lake trail. Ambushed by a foe who, regardless of the conventions of war, made treacherous use of the white flag, overwhelmed by more than twice their number, hampered in their evolutions by the deep crusted snow, the little company, after a half-hour's sharp engagement with the strongly posted enemy, were forced to retire, bearing their wounded and some of their dead with them, leaving ...
— The Patrol of the Sun Dance Trail • Ralph Connor
... reservations let me steer you. I got a cousin works down at the White Flag offices—Harry Mansbach. He'll fix you up if there ain't a room left on the boat. He's the greatest ...
— Every Soul Hath Its Song • Fannie Hurst
... 'Stay, it is a false alarm by my order,' said the General."[150] The ignoble surrender of Detroit by General Hull was deplored by many of the men under him. The story is told that while General Hull's aid was trying to place the white flag in position he called, "Snelling, come and help me fix this flag." Whereupon that officer replied, "No, sir; I will not soil ...
— Old Fort Snelling - 1819-1858 • Marcus L. Hansen
... section of the Revolutionaries, and by supporting their proposal in a series of speeches which might be summed up in the words "Peace at any Price." Even the German CHANCELLOR will not be wholly pleased, for the debate revealed that, apart from the seven or eight gentlemen who follow the white flag of the Member for Blackburn, the House is absolutely fixed in its determination to defeat German militarism before talking ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, May 23, 1917 • Various
... of the General, with a few horsemen, surprised a body of Tories who had made their headquarters in a log barn. He put the trunk of a tree on two wagon wheels, painted it to look like a cannon, and pointed it at the barn. Then he sent a messenger with a white flag of truce to tell them to surrender or be blown to pieces. Their leader and one hundred and twelve men surrendered! They felt very foolish when they saw the cannon and were laughed ...
— George Washington • Calista McCabe Courtenay
... some men at the top of the hill, I gave word to fire three guns, to show that we were friends, and soon we saw smoke rise from the side of the creek. I then went on shore in a boat, with the priest and Friday, and hung out a white flag of peace. The first man I cast my eyes on at the creek, was my old friend Carl, who, when I was last on the isle, had been brought ...
— Robinson Crusoe - In Words of One Syllable • Mary Godolphin
... got up, and the ships were under sail, a boat came off with a white flag, bearing a message from the Sheikh, who complained of the attempt made to kill his pilot, and of his visitors going away without any sufficient cause for their departure. He promised, should anyone have done them injury, to inflict ...
— Notable Voyagers - From Columbus to Nordenskiold • W.H.G. Kingston and Henry Frith
... firing, in order that the French might offer negotiations for surrender; but no sign of surrender was made, and the Bavarian cannon resumed their fire, throwing shells into the town itself. Napoleon now caused a white flag to be displayed on the fortress, and sent a letter to the King of Prussia, stating that as he had not been able to die in the midst of his troops, nothing remained for him but to surrender his sword into the hands of his Majesty. The surrender was accepted by King William, who added ...
— History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 • C. A. Fyffe
... standstill. A snub from a duchess or a slanging from a fish-wife are much more likely to put things straight." So, at least, rang the ancient female challenge down the ages until the recent female capitulation. So streamed the red standard of the higher anarchy until Miss Pankhurst hoisted the white flag. ...
— What's Wrong With The World • G.K. Chesterton
... later he saw a white flag among the trees, and when Willet mounted the palisade two French officers came forward. Robert saw at once that they were De Courcelles and Jumonville, and his heart beat hard. They linked him with Quebec, in which he had spent some momentous days, and ...
— The Shadow of the North - A Story of Old New York and a Lost Campaign • Joseph A. Altsheler
... Standish drew near the thicket, Alden carrying the white flag beside him, the savages refrained from firing, his invitation to parley was received with a volley of abuse and defiance renewed at every attempt of his ...
— Standish of Standish - A story of the Pilgrims • Jane G. Austin
... where Jonah Vark was born when she was alive. It seems like France was mixed up in another war along about a 100 yrs. ago and they was getting licked and Jonah was just a young gal but she dressed up in men's coat and pants and went up to the front and led the charges with a horse and she carried a white flag and the Dutchmens or whoever they was fighting against must of thought it was a flag of truants and any way they didn't fire at them and the French captured New Orleans and win the war. The Germans is trying ...
— The Real Dope • Ring Lardner
... all his barbaric virtues, and erect as a giraffe, moved about the decks in all the pomp of six feet five in his socks. There was a corporeal humility in looking up at him; and a white man standing before him seemed a white flag come to beg truce of a fortress. Curious to tell, this imperial negro, Ahasuerus Daggoo, was the Squire of little Flask, who looked like a chess-man beside him. As for the residue of the Pequod's company, be it said, that at the present day not one in two of the many thousand men before the ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... limping away by a visit from the rifle of Chingachgook. New covers were immediately found, however; and each party seemed to prepare for the renewal of the strife in another form. But the appearance of June, bearing a white flag, and accompanied by the French officer and Muir, stayed the hands of all, and was the forerunner of another parley. The negotiation that followed was held beneath the blockhouse; and so near it as at once to put those who were uncovered completely at the ...
— The Pathfinder - The Inland Sea • James Fenimore Cooper
... daylight to see the enemy in order to do some damage in return, so many men were hit, and the position seemed so utterly hopeless, that I had to hoist the white flag. We had by then twenty-four men killed and six wounded. As soon as the white flag went up the Boers ceased firing at once, and stood up; every bush and ant-hill up to 100 yards' range seemed to have ...
— The Defence of Duffer's Drift • Ernest Dunlop Swinton
... dinner they are liberated for play, but the girls often hang about the house with babies on their backs the whole afternoon nursing dolls. One evening I met a procession of sixty boys and girls, all carrying white flags with black balls, except the leader, who carried a white flag with a gilded ball, and they sang, or rather howled, as they walked; but the other amusements have been of a most sedentary kind. The mechanical toys, worked by water-wheels in the stream, are ...
— Unbeaten Tracks in Japan • Isabella L. Bird
... concluding to retain it for the usefulness it was sure to afford sooner or later. "There is one thing to be done," said he, when they sat down to rest. "I must climb up that mountain and plant a white flag to show that we are here if a ship should pass. I'll do that as soon as I have rested, provided I can find anything white that is large enough to ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon
... had been standing there his tail had hung down, and it was as Johnny Chuck had said. But at Johnny's remark up flew Lightfoot's tail, showing only the under side. It was like a pointed white flag. With it held aloft that way, no one behind Lightfoot would suspect that his ...
— The Burgess Animal Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess
... stream with a design to fight their way, but after an engagement of two hours their principal galley, named the Terror of the World, was boarded and taken, after losing five hundred men of seven which she carried. Many other vessels were afterwards captured or sunk. The laksamana hung out a white flag and sent to treat with Nunno, but, some difficulty arising about the terms, the engagement was renewed with great warmth. News was brought to the Portuguese that the maharaja was killed and that the king of Pahang was approaching with a hundred sail of vessels to reinforce ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden
... simplicity: a smaller congregation: softer music: a lower-toned organ; less rush of people; and in very many of the flock the most intense and unfeigned expression of piety. At the elevation of the host, from the end of the choir, (near which was suspended a white flag with the portrait of the present King[28] upon it) a bell was rung from the tower of the church; the sound, below, was soft and silver-toned—accompanied by rather a quick movement on the organ, upon the diapason stop; which, united ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume One • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
... first time) and not altogether liking it, is turning towards Adam in surprised remonstrance. The second procession is of reptiles, led by the snail; the third, the smaller quadrupeds, led by four rats, followed desperately close (but of course under the white flag) by two cats; while the fourth—all sorts and conditions of birds—streams through the air. The others in this series are all delightful, not the least being that in which God, having finished His work, takes Adam's arm and flies with him over the earth ...
— A Wanderer in Florence • E. V. Lucas
... to arrive, attracted by the enormous white flag with the red cross, which was now waving from the castle tower. They came from the division battling beyond the Marne. Their metal fittings were dented by projectiles, their wind-shields broken by star-shaped holes. From their interiors appeared men and more ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... the Carpathians to the Rhine, from the sea to the Alps, the anthem of arms, the stir of destruction go up as we moved. We wrangled for the outpost places, that when the closing of the steel ring was flashed across the circle we might be first to see the white flag at our point. ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1915 - And the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... amnesty, deed of release. peace offering; olive branch; calumet of peace, preliminaries of peace. truce, armistice; suspension of arms, suspension of hostilities, stand-down; breathing time; convention; modus vivendi[Lat]; flag of truce, white flag, parlementaire[Fr], cartel|!. hollow truce, pax in bello[Lat]; drawn battle. V. pacify, tranquilize, compose; allay &c. (moderate) 174; reconcile, propitiate, placate, conciliate, meet halfway, hold out the olive ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... it a little difficult for him presently when he broached the subject of Adair. He had an uneasy feeling that Sir Tobias wouldn't approve of this way of conducting his mission. It was one thing to fly the white flag of truce while you parleyed with the enemy; it was quite another to share the same couch with her in a cozy room, where there were only the two of you and the jumping flames of the fire in the grate made the silver on the small round table glow red. When they ...
— The Kingdom Round the Corner - A Novel • Coningsby Dawson
... ability, no industry, no learning, no experience, are in the least degree necessary. To defend a post of importance against a powerful enemy requires an Eliot; a drunken invalid is qualified to hoist a white flag, or to deliver up the keys of ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... of hostility. They were defeated in open field, the Garibaldi legion rushing out to meet them; and though they suffered much from the walls, they sustained themselves nowhere. They never put up a white flag till they wished to surrender. The vanity that strives to cover over these facts is unworthy of men. The only excuse for the imprudent conduct of the expedition is that they were deceived, not by the Romans here, but by the priests of Gaeta, leading them to expect action ...
— At Home And Abroad - Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe • Margaret Fuller Ossoli
... duller brown. Again a wounded picket came straying back to camp, bleeding and dazed, to report the inevitable sniping which furnished the running accompaniment to most other events; or an angry squad came riding in, to tell of the shots which had followed close upon the raising of the white flag, or of the score of armed men who had suddenly leaped out from the safe shelter of a Red-Cross ambulance. And, on one occasion, he had been in the thick of a similar fray. Hand to hand, he had fought on the doorsteps of a farmhouse to which he and his five comrades ...
— On the Firing Line • Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller
... are thus had between belligerent armies. By common consent, as a rule of war, a person approaching one army from another, with a white flag, is respected as a neutral; and to "fire upon a flag," as the phrase is when the bearer is fired upon, is considered a great breach ...
— The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758-1775 - With Numerous Illustrative Notes • Abraham Tomlinson
... and wandered up and down, till near dinner-time. At last, O'Shane's boat was seen returning—but no white flag! The boat rowed nearer and nearer, and reached the ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth
... makes: He ne're assaults but where the Walls are slight, True Bullies will with none but Cowards fight. A vertuous Woman values fame too high, } To let such Beastly Slaves her Walls come nigh, } And that's the cause, he's now her Enemy: } When the White flag you see by them hung out. You then are wonderous daring bold and stout, When once you but discover those within, By their faint fire, have a low magazine. A slender stock of Chastity in store, } Your Oathes and Curses then like Cannon roar } You Devil like; cry out a Whore, ...
— The Pleasures of a Single Life, or, The Miseries Of Matrimony • Anonymous
... Armand Carrel was a wonderful man. His motto, like that of Danton, was this: 'Audacity, audacity, always audacity!' Yet with all the audacity of Danton, he had little of his firmness. An officer under the Restoration, a conspirator at Bifort, in arms in Spain against the white flag, three times a prisoner before a council of war—in 1830 he was with Thiers, the founder of this journal; but everywhere he carried the exactitude of the camp; even in dress, manner and bearing he was a soldier—lofty, haughty, seemingly overbearing, yet, at heart, noble ...
— Edmond Dantes • Edmund Flagg
... of invitation to these reunions was simple and speedy. A youth on his pony would take a small wand, and tie to its top end a red or white flag, and ride up and down the bayou, from the house where the ball was intended, for two or three miles; returning, tie the wand and flag to flaunt above the gate, informing all—"This is the place." ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks
... which the soldiers of Peter the First usually fought, bore, as its inscription, "In the name of the Prince, and for our country." Relying on the aid of the Greeks, in his war with the Porte, he changed the white flag to red, and displayed on it the words, "In the name of God, and for Christianity." The unfortunate issue of this war is well known. Though Anne and Elizabeth, the successors of Peter, did not possess his active character, they kept up a constant communication with Greece, ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster
... the advancing horsemen, who carried with them a white flag tied to the blade of a spear. "Physician, will you and your friends come with me and speak to these messengers?" And without even waiting for an answer, she rode forward fifty yards or so on to the ...
— Queen Sheba's Ring • H. Rider Haggard
... the hazard of their succession to it, etc. At which the indulged were so incensed, that no sooner was their meeting well settled, than they began to shew their teeth at him, calling him an intruder, a jesuit, a white devil, going through the land carrying the devil's white flag; that he had done more hurt to the church of Scotland, than its enemies had done these twenty years, etc.: As also spreading papers through the country, as given under his hand, to render him odious; which in truth were ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie
... the boats—five of them—come round the point. Two of them we recognised as belonging to my husband's vessel, though they were, of course, manned by Frenchmen. They rowed leisurely in through the entrance till they were within musket-shot, and then the foremost one ceased rowing, and hoisted a white flag. ...
— "Old Mary" - 1901 • Louis Becke
... emblem centered on the three bands; the emblem features a temple-like structure with Islamic inscriptions above and below, encircled by a wreath on the left and right and by a bolder Islamic inscription above, all of which are encircled by two crossed scimitars note: the Taliban uses a plain white flag ...
— The 1998 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... down by a larger body. We were too weak to drive them from their position, but when the east began to brighten and they still did not come forward, the captain advanced towards them with the drummer, bearing a white flag, and shouted to them in Italian, which he had learned to speak a little in Italy, that he wished the Castilian gentlemen good-morning, and if there was any officer with a sense of honor among them, ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... and opposed to threefold numbers: and their officers found that nothing was to be done but to allow them to look on quietly, while Jacques led away his little army, with loud music and a streaming white flag. A few horsemen led the van, and closed in the rear. The rest marched, as if on a holiday trip, now singing to the music of the band, and now making the hills ring again with the ...
— The Hour and the Man - An Historical Romance • Harriet Martineau
... off his allegiance to the government he had sworn to defend, he threw off his manhood with it. But he gained nothing by it. The battle was fiercely renewed by the Union forces, and the next day Commodore Barron hoisted the white flag and surrendered himself and his garrison unconditionally. In going off to the fleet he was obliged to pass close under the guns of the Wabash, a fine vessel which, six months before, he ...
— Marcy The Blockade Runner • Harry Castlemon
... the west of the besieged camp they watched the plausible Bateman with his flag of truce meet one of the emigrants who came out, also with a white flag, and saw them stand talking a little time. Bateman then came back around the end of the hill that separated the two camps. His proposal had been gratefully accepted. The besieged emigrants were in desperate straits; their dead were unburied in the narrow ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson
... the hermit, seeing whither Mr. Magee's gaze drifted. "She picked it. I didn't exactly like it when she first gave it to me, but I see my mistake now. I'm wearing it home as a sort of a white flag of truce. Or almost white. Do you know, Mr. Magee, I'm somewhat nervous about what I'll say when I come into her presence again—about my inaugural address, you might put it. What would be your conversation on such an occasion? If you'd been away from a wife ...
— Seven Keys to Baldpate • Earl Derr Biggers
... commenced the reign of what was called the Terreur Blanche, or White Terror, consisting of a series of proscriptions and bloody executions, under the white flag of the Bourbons, which shocked the spirit of humanity. Unrelenting revenge was dominant. Marshal Ney, General Labedoyere, and many others of the noblest men in France, were ere long put to death or driven into exile. The friends of Louis XVIII. in the Chamber ...
— Louis Philippe - Makers of History Series • John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
... threats are to be held out only to base bisognos, and not to men of spirit and action, who are bound to peril themselves as freely in services of this nature, as upon sieges, battles, or onslaughts of any sort. And albeit I have not with me a trumpet, or a white flag, in respect our army is not yet equipped with its full appointments, yet the honourable cavaliers and your lordship must concede unto me, that the sanctity of an envoy who cometh on matter of truth or parle, consisteth not in the fanfare of a trumpet, whilk is but ...
— A Legend of Montrose • Sir Walter Scott
... no confidence in that tall boy.' (He do seem a long, weedy, useless sort of lubber.) Lord bless you, miss, we luffed, and were running down to you long before you made the signal of distress with your little white flag." Lucy's cheeks got redder. "No, miss, if the skipper speaks severe to you, Jack Painter is blind with one eye, and ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade
... post fret, and fidget, and curvet about. At length they are again in line. Down goes the white flag! 'Good start!' shouts an excited planter. Down goes the red flag. 'Off at last!' breaks like a deep drawn sigh from the crowd, and now the six horses, all together, and at a rattling pace, tear up the hill, over the sand at the south corner, ...
— Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier - Twelve Years Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo Planter • James Inglis
... attack. Thanks to his valor and able generalship, the Turks were forced back, and fled in confusion; some finding refuge within the walls, others, in their dismay, plunging into the moat. The Bavarians followed the fugitives, and now from every castle-window waved the white flag of surrender." ...
— Prince Eugene and His Times • L. Muhlbach
... free passage for supplies to the camp. Whilst opposite to Maybonga, a Spaniard, named Bustos, and his Cagayan troops fired on them. The British returned the fire, and Bustos fled to Mariquina. The British passed the river, and sent an officer with a white flag of truce to demand surrender. Bustos was insolent, and threatened to hang the officer if he returned. Backhouse's troops then opened fire and placed two field-pieces, which completely scared the natives, ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman
... was out on the river, especially at night, and yet he took chances that I would not take. In the early days here at Riverby there was no railroad on this side of the Hudson, and to get a train one must cross the river. In summer one hung out a white flag from West Park dock and Bilyou would row over for you, but when there was ice in the river one must walk or stay home. In zero weather it was only a matter of a long walk over the ice, often facing a blast of below-zero wind, but when the March thaws had ...
— My Boyhood • John Burroughs
... breath, but uttered no word. She looked into her mother-in-law's eyes, and smiled through her tears. The Wrandalls, looking on in amaze, saw the smile reflected in the face of the older woman. Then it was that Vivian crossed quickly and put her arms about the shoulders of her sister-in-law. The white flag on both sides. ...
— The Hollow of Her Hand • George Barr McCutcheon
... for the brainy Osteopath to run up the white flag of defeat and surrender. Open the doors of your purest reason, put on the belt of energy and unload the sinking vessel of life. Throw overboard all dead weights from fascia and wake up the forces of the excretories. Let the nerves all show their ...
— Philosophy of Osteopathy • Andrew T. Still
... moral aspects as an illustration of modern civilization. On the first morning there was substantial unanimity in assuming the totality of the disaster, and the most ingenious artists in headlines vied with each other in startling effects: "Crash in Wall Street." "Mavick Runs Up the White Flag." "King of Wall Street Called Down." "Ault Takes the Pot." "Dangerous to Dukes." "Mavick Bankrupt." "The House of Mavick a Ruin." "Dukes and Drakes." "The Sea Goes ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... close-season for most of furred and feathered kind. The fox is safe enough, and, if sportsmen are right, must be rather wearying for open weather, and for the return of his favourite exercise with hounds. But even when the snow hangs out her white flag of truce and goodwill between man and beast, the British sportsman is still the British sportsman, and is not averse to going out and killing something. To such a one, wild-fowl shooting is a possibility, though, as good Colonel Hawker says, some people complain forsooth ...
— Lost Leaders • Andrew Lang
... who accepted it, and so worked his vessel that the Alabama had to move round him in a circle, while he filled her up with iron, lead, copper, tin, German silver, glass, nails, putty, paint, varnishes, and dye-stuff. At the seventh rotation the Alabama ran up the white flag and sunk with a low mellow plunk. The crew was rescued by Captain Winslow and the English yacht Deerhound, the latter taking ...
— Comic History of the United States • Bill Nye
... things than death," said Colonel Parsons. "I have often thought that those fellows who surrendered did the braver thing. It is easy to stand and be shot down, but to hoist the white flag so as to save the lives of the men ...
— The Hero • William Somerset Maugham
... of Toul, in Lorraine, was forced to capitulate, after a fearful bombardment; and on the 27th Strasbourg, in danger of the terrible results of a storming, after the havoc of a dreadful artillery fire, hoisted the white flag, and surrendered on the following day. The supposed impregnable fortress of Metz held out little longer. Hunger did what cannon were incapable of doing. The successive sallies made by Bazaine proved unavailing, ...
— A History of The Nations and Empires Involved and a Study - of the Events Culminating in The Great Conflict • Logan Marshall |
